Navios Maritime Partners uses cash, debt to fund Q3 vessel purchases

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 23 - Navios Maritime Acquisition Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Angeliki Frangou is "very pleased" with Navios Maritime Partners LP's third-quarter results, which included a 20% increase in EBITDA and a rise in net income of 33%.

In August, Navios Partners entered into a new credit facility with DVB Bank SE and ABN AMRO Bank NV, in order to borrow $44 million to partially finance the acquisitions of the vessels Navios Buena Ventura, Navios Soleil and the Navios Helios.

The facility matures on Feb. 9, 2018 and is repayable in 22 equal quarterly installments of just under $1 million each with a final balloon payment of about $24 million, a company news release said.

It bears interest at a rate of Libor plus 350 basis points.

In July, Navios Partners entered into a facility agreement with DVB Bank SE and Commerzbank AG for $290.45 million in order to refinance two existing facilities: a 2007 amended $260 million credit facility and a 2011 $35 million credit facility.

The new loan matures on Nov. 30, 2017 and is repayable, if drawn in full, in 21 installments in various quarterly amounts during the term ranging from $600,000 to $12.9 million, and a final payment of $128.6 million.

Also in July, the company used $20.7 million in cash to acquire the Navios Soleil and $20.8 million to buy the Navios Helios, both from unrelated third parties.

Liquidity at the end of the third quarter totaled about $965 million, including $52 million of cash and cash equivalents.

The company had long-term debt of about $298 million at Sept. 30, with a ratio of net debt as a percentage of total capitalization of 35.1%.

Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was up at about $22 million, or $5 million from the prior-year period. The increase was attributed to a $7 million increase in EBITDA partially offset by a $1.3 million increase in depreciation and amortization expense due in part to the acquisition of the new vessels.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, net income was about $56 million, up from about $47 million in the prior-year period, also due in part to increased EBITDA as well as increased interest expense.

Navios Partners' board of directors declared a cash distribution for the third quarter of 2012 of $0.4425 per unit payable on Nov. 13 to unitholders of record on Nov. 8.

The company has increased its distributions by 26.4% since its inception and more than tripled its fleet capacity since its November 2007 initial public offering.

Piraeus, Greece-based Navios Maritime Partners and Navios Maritime Acquisitions operate tanker ships.

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